Monthly Archives: October 2013

Controlling development by the numbers

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Development, Genetics, Vertebrates

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An embryo of the sea squirt Ciona. The nuclei of the 40 notochord cells are highlighted in red and the contours of a few notochord cells are defined by green fluorescent protein. All other visible nuclei are colored in blue. (Image Credit: Janice H. Imai and Anna Di Gregorio)Genes have to be carefully coordinated to switch on at just the right moment in development in order to make a mature, complex embryo out of just a single cell. Scientists working at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York have discovered how this coordination is accomplished. In a paper just published in PLOS Biology, they describe how the gene Brachyury controls the timing of a cascade of genes involved in a crucial process in vertebrate development. Continue reading →

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How much sugar is too much?

23 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Humans, Mammals

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A 50cl Italian coke can. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Everyone knows that too much sugar is bad for you, but how much is too much? According to a study published earlier this year, the amount of additional dietary sugar considered safe by regulatory agencies was enough to impact the health of mice, reducing the lifespan of females and the fertility of males. Continue reading →

DNA nanotechnology (Part II)

16 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Form

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Image credit: WikipediaIn the previous post, I introduced DNA nanotechnology and talked a bit about some of the 2-D structures that researchers have devised. Scientists have also used these techniques to build a variety of 3-D shapes, some of which can be used as containers for drug delivery. In this post, I’m going to focus on the DNA tetrahedron, a four-sided pyramid made of DNA which is relatively easy to build and manipulate and has proven useful in several recent studies.
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DNA nanotechnology (Part I)

10 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by in Form

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Image credit: WikipediaThe phrase “DNA nanotechnology” has a thoroughly futuristic ring. It sounds like something from a science-fiction novel, but what does it actually mean? Nanotechnology just means manipulating stuff on the scale of atoms and molecules. DNA nanotechnology is an approach that harnesses the self-organizing properties of DNA. The idea is to use DNA to precisely position things or build structures and machines, ideally in a way that’s cheaper or more efficient than other techniques.
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Talkin’ ’bout Evolution

02 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Evolution

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Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to write anything for Inspiring Science this week, so instead I decided to link to a few of my recent posts on Accumulating Glitches instead. I wrote two posts, Tracking the Evolution of a Virus and Antibiotics and Applied Evolution, about evolutionary sories which might affect our day-to-day lives; I introducted them saying: Continue reading →